OBSERVATION, PREDICTION, AND CORRELATION OF GEOMETRIC SHAPE EVOLUTIONINDUCED BY NONISOTHERMAL SINTERING OF POLYMER POWDER

Sintering of powders occurs in a wide array of manufacturing technolog ies and geophysical phenomena. Despite the prevalence of powder sinter ing, little attention has been paid to sintering of macroscopic shapes under non-isothermal conditions. In this paper (1) features of a repr esentative, experimentally grown solid shape produced by non isotherma l sintering are discussed (2) prediction of the solid shape evolution is achieved using a hybrid heat transfer sintering, and consolidation model, (3) comparison of the actual and predicted solid shapes is made , (4) parametric simulation of solid part growth in conjunction with v oid expansion is attained, and (5) analytical predictions of the void space evolution are developed and discussed.